Welcome back Wolf 359 friends and fans to another installment of Wolf 359 Daily! It’s December 25, making it Mission Day 580, and most importantly, Doug Eiffel’s birthday. Among other holidays, but y’know, they’re whatever. I hope you’ll all join me in celebrating this joyous holiday by discussing episodes 12 and 13: “Deep Breaths” and “Gas Me Twice”!
This two-part finale gives us a great cap to season 1, as well as launching us into some of the intense drama that Wolf 359 would become known for. But I love that we begin the finale where we began the series: with Eiffel coveting his contraband cigarettes and trying to figure out how to smoke them without getting caught and/or blown up. Gotta say, I’m with Hera on the point that I don’t quite think Eiffel’s plan would’ve gone off the way he wanted it to. I mean, maybe I’m missing some element to this, but it seems like if you pull all the oxygen from the room so it doesn’t burn, you also... don’t have any oxygen to burn, which is a somewhat important ingredient in smoking.
But anyway, we also have the return of our good old episode-one friend, the mystery space transmissions. Been a while since we’ve had one as part of an episode, I believe the last time we did was “Cataracts and Hurricanoes” back in September. Now, finally, we’re beginning to get an answer as to what they are and where they’re coming from. Finally, after five months, Hilbert has paid enough attention to Eiffel to realize that he’d just casually made first contact without anyone noticing. Not gonna lie, even if his whole mutiny hadn’t gone sideways on him, having to report to command that he hadn’t noticed Eiffel was receiving possible alien transmissions for nearly half a year would’ve made for an awkward debrief.
Though, as far as mutinies on the Hephaestus go, this one is a doozie. I feel like these two episodes really throw the show into gear, and hit us with one “oh shit” moment after another, and each worse than the last. Suddenly we’re definitely not in the same often-silly sometimes-spooky space sitcom where we started back in August. I think what really drove home that things were different was losing Hera. The first contact reveal, Hilbert’s mutiny, they’re very tense and dramatic, but it still felt like “Yeah, but they always get through these wild situations, somehow they’ll get through it.” And even when things looked bad—Eiffel getting gassed, Minkowski trapped in space, Hera under Hilbert’s control—they did manage to claw their way back! Then Hilbert effectively kills Hera in front of us and it was just a moment of “oh no, there are stakes now, who invited them.”
Ugh, everything with Hera in these episodes gets me. I love the sweet little moment of giving Eiffel his “present” and making sure to acknowledge his birthday. Then seeing her have to struggle against Hilbert’s overrides is just the worst. We’ve already seen how much she doesn’t like the controls on her that prevent her from doing things she already (hopefully) doesn’t want to do, like flood the living quarters with liquid nitrogen. Being made to do things she really doesn’t want to do is so much worse. Still, I then come back around to absolutely loving Eiffel’s inspirational speech to help her fight through the controls as much as she can.
And of course, she’s not dead dead. Even skipping over the “well technically she’s not alive” argument, there’s a chance she can be repaired. But having her damaged, possibly for good, is such a blow in an episode that started with the promise of Christmas dinner and an approximation of eggnog. However, having Eiffel get the robotic central processor response when asking “Can you hear me?” after we just had Hera talking about how she can always hear him and she’s always there... that was rude. How dare you, Urbina.
Man this is a great pair of episodes. Of course I live for the drama, but I also love how many little callbacks they brought into these episodes. Eiffel’s final cigarette, sole survivor of the three cartons he had hidden in the comms panel; his gas mask plan, reminiscent of the “Extreme Danger Bug” scenario, which also turned out to be our Checkhov’s gun to save him from Hilbert’s halothane gas attack (itself courtesy of “Little Revolución”); Hera’s fire protocols just mentioned in “Am I Alone Now?”, employed to great effect to undo Hilbert’s override; and our fan favorite, another excellent application of Pryce & Carter tip #614: “When in doubt, whip it out — ’it’ being hydrochloric acid.” I believe much of this is what the Kinda Evil Genius team calls “retroactive cleverness,” looking back to past episodes to find creative solutions to current problems, rather than planting these elements from the start for future use. But hey, however you get there, clever is clever, and I love all these callbacks.
This season finale leaves us on a cliffhanger of waiting on the line with Goddard command. Having just learned that Goddard had briefed Hilbert on contingencies that even Commander Minkowski knew nothing of, some of which apparently included instructions to immediately eliminate the rest of the crew, this was definitely destined to be an uncomfortable call. In the original release schedule, this wouldn’t resolve until season 2 began to air on February 14, 2015. However, for the sake of our calendar, we’ll be picking up again with Episode 14: “The Kumbaya Approach” tomorrow! I hope those celebrating tonight have happy holidays, and happy birthday Eiffel.
Before we go, though, one more reminder that the season finale for Dracula: The Danse Macabre, a new audio fiction show by Gabriel Urbina, is available now! Check it out at draculathedansemacabre.com, and consider giving it a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. I sincerely hope that The Danse Macabre will continue for more seasons to come, and ratings and reviews are huge in helping people find their new favorite show.
And with that, we’ll leave you with today’s rejected Pryce & Carter tip:
It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done. A far, far better rest I go to, after I put the gas in your quarters.
Wolf 359 Daily is written and recorded by Rina Cerame.
Wolf 359 is a product of Kinda Evil Genius Productions. More information on the show can be found on their website at wolf359.fm
We hope you’ll join us again on December 26 for Episode 14: “The Kumbaya Approach.” Thanks for listening!
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